Season Grouse Report 2023

21st December 2023

We are writing our Season Grouse Report 2023 as another year finally draws to an end. It has been our best season since Edd joined the company back in 2016, which is testimony to the hard work our team has put in, and we hope we have lots of happy clients who have enjoyed days on the hill with Dalesport this year!

We had a superb August & September with most of our let shooting going ahead as planned. There were 15 cancelled days due to lack of stock on a mixture of managed and unmanaged Estates, but for the most part, we continued shooting grouse until the end of the season with our last days in December this year!

Areas of high ground were the most productive across the board, but they also seemed to carry the highest worm burden which was noticeable even at the start of the season. The worm counts on higher ground continued to increase throughout the season, which is why several Estates continued to shoot the stock down into December to mitigate against the continual rise in worm burdens. Having said this, the Estates we have shot over this year have had a very positive young to old ratio. I think most of the keepers will be pleased to be taking on a young stock into next year, in comparison to the past 5+ years of old stock...

Certain areas were worse effected than others, with worm burdens early on which was frustrating as some of these Moors had left good healthy stocks last year.

Scotland struggled this year, although areas in the borders seemed to produce a lot of grouse. Nidderdale had a particularly tricky time and only a few Moors shot in the area. Small pockets of the North Pennines & North York Moors did not have a surplus of grouse to harvest this year, but this was very localised as other areas in those regions were very productive. Although this sounds like a tough year, we were incredibly busy hosting grouse days on the Moor from August all the way through to December!

The weather played a big part this season and has seemed more disruptive than ever. The North was plagued by east winds and low cloud for what seemed like weeks… No doubt those out on the Moors experienced foggy days or even cancelled days due to the persistent fog? So much so, that insurers stopped insuring against the risk of bad weather. For those of you considering taking Bad Weather Insurance next year, prices are due to be increasing due to the losses made this year with claims.

But overall, we definitely can’t complain, our clients shot some amazing Grouse days this season and we really hope that Dalesport delivered what was expected of us, which is an exceptional experience, with a professional service.

A huge thank you to all tour Clients for their continued support and also the Moor owners and keepers who have allowed us all onto their Moors this year. We have our fingers crossed, for favourable weather, healthy young grouse and another great year in 2024!

If you would like to book any grouse shooting for next season, please touch base with us as soon as you can, as we are nearly sold up for next season already. There is some availability on the website if you are interested.